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Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Learn from Our Disney Mistakes Vol. 2

We consider ourselves to pretty much be experts on all things Disneyland, but as we've shared before, sometimes things can still surprise us when they don't go as planned. We had three surprising situations come up on our trip to the Happiest Place on Earth last month and we wanted to share them with you so you don't make the same mistakes we did.

Magic Morning is NOT Always Inlcuded

We always look at ticket prices online (Disneyland's website or the app) when we're planning a trip, and when you're looking at 3-5 day tickets it says Magic Morning early admission is included. Hooray! I love a morning with fewer people in the park. (Its the best time to get on Peter Pan!)

What it DOESN'T say is that this is an online/phone order exclusive! If you look at prices online and then decide to purchase in person at the ticket booths, you will not get Magic Morning! We found that out the hard way. Luckily an amazing Cast Member took pity on us when he saw how shocked we were and added Magic Morning to our tickets. If for some reason (like wanting to pay with more than one gift card), you can't buy tickets online but want Magic Morning, buy your tickets over the phone. They'll be waiting for you at the ticket booths when you get to the parks (or they can ship it to you if you have enough time) and you'll still get your extra hour in the park.

Timing for Electrical Parade Meals

We were a really big group this trip, so we thought, "Wouldn't it be great if all 10 of us didn't have to sit and wait for Electrical Parade seats?!?" So of course we went for one of the parade meal packages. We went online and reserved a dinner at Aladdin's Oasis with Electrical Parade seating. We went to check in at our assigned time. The Cast Member looked at our group (complete with kids ages 1, 4, and 6) and very cautiously asked us (as if she's been asking people all day and not gotten great responses) if we realized that or seats would be for the second showing of the parade at 10:30...what??? We couldn't believe our error and didn't remember there being any kind of notice on the dining reservations site about parade times. The CM explained that lunch is for the first show, and dinner is for the second show. She very graciously cancelled our reservation at no charge and advised us to look online right away to check for reservations the next day. Of course we did, and were luck enough that it all worked out. But the website doesn't explain the timing, and only gives you your parade time AFTER you've made your reservation. (Btw, our lunch was delicious!)

Reserved Seating Location

Electrical Parade dinner/seating saga Part 2 - ready? The seats are terrible. Now, I don't know off hand where they seat you if you do the premium meal at the Blue Bayou. But I'll tell you about the seating for Aladdin. It's directly across from Small World (which I personally love for the first parade because that's right at the start), but its behind the reserved VIP seats, behind a fence, and behind some bushes. Meaning you need to stand to see, if you have kids in a stroller, they can't stay in it and be able to see the parade, and you still need to get there at least 40 minutes early if you want the front of that section. So after paying quite a bit for your meal, you're still not guaranteed to be able to see since tall adults may be standing in front of you. We ended up not even going into the reserved section and found front row seats ourselves!

To Sum It Up

Learn from our mistakes so you can have an amazing trip!

Have any advice or tips from things you've learned on your Disney vacations? Share with us in the comments below.

1 comment:

Thankfully I had heard about the terrible Aladdin seating from other people. For those wondering, Blue Bayou is the way to go for this. They have a reserved area right across from the train station on main street. You have to show up a bit early if you want to sit on the curb, but overall its great viewing.